Finding A Way In
by HecateA
Summary: When an Auror crashes their hackathon, the Marauders fear that their plans to expose Lucius Malfoy will come crashing down like the first several layers of his cybersecurity. Little do they know... Oneshot. Hacker!AU


**Author's Note: **It's appropriate that I wrote this while snacking heavily at 2:00 a.m. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #3, Technomancy Task #1 Write a Hacker!AU

**Warnings: **NA

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Not Commonwealth; Shipping War; Hogwarts; Rays of Blades; Not Commonwealth

**Individual Challenge(s): **Quoteth the Bardeth; Gryffindor MC (x5); Hufflepuff MC; Seeds; Marauder Tales; Minerva's Migraine (Y); Bow Before the Blacks; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Friendship); Themes & Things B (Ambition); True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; Short Jog (Y); Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Representation(s): **Hacker!AU; Auror Tonks; Hacker Lily Evans

**Bonus challenge(s):** Grease Monkey; Lyre Liar; Most Human Bean; Head of Perseus; Surprise!; Second Verse (Found Family); Chorus (Bee Haven)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: **NA

**Word Count: **2121

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks

**List (Prompt): **Summer Medium 2 (Hackers/Programmer AU)

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**Finding A Way In **

"We've reached hour 7," Peter said, reaching into a container of cheese puffs as he said it.

"Damn it," James muttered to himself.

"I'm just the messenger. Not my fault that time's passing," Peter said through a mouthful of chemical deliciousness. "I was told to keep an eye on the clock."

"You're doing great, Wormtail," Remus said from his own spot, sitting on the floor in front of his three screens and keyboard, which he'd set up on the coffee table. He was typing from an arm's length away, eyes fixed on the screen. "New code's nearly ready."

"Hopefully that's the last one we need," Sirius mused. "I don't know how much longer I can keep our backdoor access open for…"

"You can do it, Padfoot," James said. He sat up and stretched, craning his neck from left to right and left again. "Evans, where's Malfoy at right now?"

"Still at the St. Mungo's Fundraiser," Lily said from her own workstation. She had managed to hack the surveillance cameras of the fancy hotel the gala was hosted at to keep an eye on their target. She took a sip from her can of soda, holding the straw between two fingers so delicately, in a way that made her seem much more inconspicuous than her current activity showed her to be. "He hasn't checked his phone or any other electronic device since he got here."

"At least there's that," Remus said. He chewed his lip nervously, looking at the sequence of numbers and letters and symbols he'd produced.

"Moony, if you need to take a break—"

"I'm close," Remus told James. "I'll have something for you all to look at in a second…"

"Let me get you a refill then," James said. He got up from his spot, restless, and got Remus another blue Gatorade from the mini-fridge in the corner. It was plugged into a wall which had so many wires and extension cords spewing out of it that even with the surge protector, it was on the sketchy side.

Remus clicked one last key and then leaned back.

"Virus is done," he said. "It… it does most of the things on our wishlist. I'm sorry, we don't have time for more."

"We're at 7 hours and 4 minutes," Peter acquiesced.

"It's all good Remus," James said, patting his shoulder and handing over his drink. "You've done good… Padfoot, come look over this with me…"

They sat on the couch behind Remus and leaned forward to look at the screen. James pulled off his glasses, wiped the lenses with the bottom of his shirt, and stuck them back on. Sirius held out a pen to follow the lines as he read through the code.

"Okay," he muttered. "Okay, good… good…"

"_So _good," Sirius said. Peter came over to check.

"This is it," Peter said. "I feel it; we're going to get through..."

"That's good Wormtail, because computers are powered by thoughts and feelings," Sirius said. He lowered his pen. "I'm confident."

"I'm happy too," James said.

"So happy," Peter said. He patted Remus' back and Remus breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you guys telling me we've got him?" Lily asked from her station.

"Did you want to come double check?" Remus offered.

"No, these idiots are trying to boot me out," Lily said. "I've got to stay put... Lucky for you four, this is one of the few areas where I actually trust you lot."

That's when the knock upstairs came.

"Oh, Merlin's fucking beard, what fresh hell is this?" Sirius muttered.

"Send the virus," James said. "Quick. Right now. Get it on Padfoot's computer."

"On it," Peter said.

There was another knock on the door.

"Someone should get that," Lily said.

"Keep your eyes on Malfoy," James said, turning to her. "If he reaches for a device, we need to know so that we can get the hell out of his network. Who's going to grab that door?"

"I need Sirius to keep that backdoor wide open for us," Peter said. "James, get your ass back on that seat I need you timekeeping now…"

"Unless I'm forgetting one of my husbands, that means Remus is up," Lily said from her seat. She gritted her teeth together. "You fuckers… leave me alone to tap your network in peace…"

"You're doing great babe," James said, swinging back into his seat. "Yeah, Remus, can you get that?"

"I guess so," Remus said. He got up, his limbs aching and his joints under the impression that they were locked into place. The knock came again.

"Look alive, Moony," Sirius said. Then he froze and turned back to look at him, wincing. "Sorry, mate. I… forgot about the moon."

"That bitch," James added. Remus laughed and winked at Peter before making his way up the staircase. He emerged in the cottage's living room—most people wouldn't even imagine that such a small building on the edge of such an old wizarding family's property would have a basement _or _the electricity and internet access they needed. The Potters, thankfully, were on the progressive side of the magical community and had welcomed the advent of technology with open hearts. It made for a convenient command central.

He closed the door behind him, to also make it a _secret _convenient command central. Then he opened the front door to a woman in a trench coat, wearing boots, slacks, and a dark yellow blouse. Her hair was bubblegum pink and put up in a half ponytail. An Auror badge hung around her neck. Her hands were dug in her pocket and she was politely turned away from the door until it opened.

"Good evening," she said.

"Good evening, Auror," Remus said politely.

"You don't know my name by now?" she grinned.

"Auror Tonks," he filled in.

She grinned.

"There we go," she said. "I assume you know why I'm here."

"Probably to tour the place again," he said. "I'm the only one here though, I don't know if you were looking for Sirius, wanting to check in on his parole…"

Sirius was the only one stupid enough to have ever gotten caught hacking anything, unfortunately. It caused some annoyance, alas. But they were usually able to turn the Aurors away or make a bad situation better. Lily had even managed to hack the Aurors' database to falsify reports for some of these so-called random check-ins. It was a little bit depressing that Lucius Malfoy had better security than one of the Ministry of Magic's most exclusive departments, but that was a separate issue.

"I'm actually not here for Black," she said. "You see, I… I ran into someone I think you should meet."

She looked over her shoulder. "Dobby, he's cool. You can come here…"

When she said it, a frail house-elf wearing an absolutely disgusting rag wrapped around his tiny body stepped forward.

"Dobby does not mean to intrude…"

"You're not intruding, Dobby," the Auror told the tiny elf. "I'm intruding, you're my guest."

She looked up to Remus. "This is Dobby. I think he's going to be a person of interest to you. Dobby, do you want to tell Remus who you know or should I?"

Dobby's hands shook and so Dora knelt again and took his hands. She made eye contact with him.

"Dobby, no hitting yourself," she said gently. She squeezed his hands and looked up to Remus again. "Dobby has allegiances to Lucius Malfoy. He has seen a fair amount of things in that Manor."

Remus' heart skipped a beat but he kept his face neutral.

"Lucius Malfoy?"

"Don't pretend you don't know who that is," Tonks scoffed. "Especially not when his face is plastered everywhere with this Ministry for Magic election coming along. And especially not when I have it on record that he's filed several complaints to the Ministry's office about cyberthreats to his personal account and infrastructure…"

After that bomb, it took extra time to keep his composure.

"That's unfortunate for him," Remus said.

"Very," Tonks said. "By the way, I know that this cottage has a basement. Took me a while to figure out what exactly you'd be doing down there and why Black would bother taking the risk of violating his parole to hide it, but the electromagic signature is so off the charts that I think I have a pretty good idea now..."

Remus blinked a few times and then he opened his mouth.

"For Merlin's sake," Tonks sighed. "I am hand-delivering you a house elf who can name every skeleton in Lucius Malfoy's closet and tell you exactly how to access them just as election season comes to a peak. Put the pieces together, Lupin. Let me in."

"You're an Auror," Remus said. "You guys are supposed to… to stop these kinds of crimes."

"And Death Eaters aren't supposed to become Minister for Magic," she said with a stiff smile, tilting her head to the side. "But here we are with Malfoy leading the polls."

"You've gone rogue, then," Remus said, leaning against the doorframe.

"Mistress Tonks is a good and just woman," Dobby spoke up.

"Thank you for the ringing endorsement, Dobby," she said, offering him a genuine smile. Then she got up and looked at Remus. He stepped aside and held the door open.

"I think Sirius has been telling you that the basement door is a pantry," Remus said. "That's what the protective charms make it look like too. Let me get the door for you, the ward knows to skip over me…"

"A hack for a spell?" the Auror whispered. "That's… that's brilliant. How did you cross over from technology to magic?"

"Time," Remus said. "Practise. A lot of coffee."

He opened the door and beckoned the Auror and the house elf so that they'd follow her down the stairs.

"Moony, all good up there?" James asked. He looked up from his monitor and his eyes popped when he saw the Auror. "Bloody hell!"

They all looked up.

"Fucking hell Remus," Sirius swore.

"She's not here as an Auror," Remus said quickly.

"Do you not see the badge around her..?" Sirius stopped mid-sentence when he saw Dobby. "My God… Dobby?"

"Master Sirius!" the tiny house elf squeaked.

"You two know each other?" Peter asked.

"Yeah," Sirius said slowly.

"Master Sirius is a member of the most noble House of Black," Dobby squeaked. "As is Mistress Narcissa, Dobby's just and righteous mistress… oh, what she would say, seeing Dobby here now, knowing where Dobby is…"

"Chin up, Dobby," Tonks said. "Tie your courage to the sticking place. You came this far."

"Dobby did," he squeaked.

"Sorry, what's happening over there?" Lily asked from the back. "Has everyone but the Muggleborn forgotten what Aurors do, here?"

"She's on our side," Remus said.

"I too am distantly related to Lucius Malfoy," Tonks said. "That's why you came to find me, isn't it Dobby? It's why I sure as hell don't want to see him as Minister for Magic, and why I absolutely want the world to know what we all know about him."

"She really is on our side," Lily said. "James, offer her a drink…"

"We only have the orange Gatorade left," James said. "It's been a long day and Peter did the shopping and got the snacks all messed up, I'm sorry…"

"How's that virus doing?" Remus asked.

"This antivirus we weren't expecting came out of nowhere," Peter said. "We thought we'd neutralized it, but I guess it had a clone… Dobby, do you really know how to get past Malfoy's defenses?"

"Yes, Master," Dobby squeaked. "People let house elves see a lot of things…"

"Brilliant," James said. "Come on, get over here, then. Do _you _like orange Gatorade?"

"Dobby has never tried before," the house elf said, wandering over to crawl onto the sofa.

"Don't pawn off that stuff on the poor house elf, he's a guest," Sirius said. "Cheese puffs, give him the cheese puffs…"

Remus turned to look to Tonks.

"How long have you been onto us?" he asked.

"I won't tell you that," she said. "There's only so much betraying of the Auror Department that I can do in one night."

"Holy shit Dobby, you little genius…" James gasped.

"Dobby did very little," the house elf squeaked.

"You just gave us access to all of Lucius Malfoy's bank data, investments, and personal records…" James said. "Dobby, you gave us everything that we need to take him down..."

"It is the Masters that peeled back the vast majority of Master Lucius' security networks…" Dobby said.

"You're the one who crossed the finish line," Remus said. "Thank you, Mister Dobby."

"Also," Sirius chimed in, "we go by the Marauders. But thank you."


End file.
